Eclipse of the Moon, March 13, 3 B.C. (astron.) From Epoch New Moon March 1797 March Sun-Node Moon’s Anom. Sun’s Anom. D. H. M. s. °. . s. °. ’. s. °. ’. 1797 16 9 12 9 9 10 2 12 39 8 26 26 ½ lun. 14 18 22 0 15 20 6 12 54 0 14 33 ———————— ——————— ——————— ——————— 31 3 34 9 24 30 8 25 33 9 10 59 ———————— ——————— ——————— ——————— 1800—) 19 0 32 9 18 59 7 17 19 0 1 31 ———————— ——————— ——————— ——————— Equats. 12 3 2 0 5 31 1 8 14 9 9 28 a +4 6 +2 3 1 34 ——————— ——————— A+a -1 0 7 34 1 9 48 A-a +2 A¹ +6 37 ———————— 12 13 46 _i.e._, March 13, at 4.46 a.m. G.M.T. E. long. 2.22 Jerusalem. ———— 4. 8 a.m. Luke also gives confirmatory evidence, and the account is very circumstantial. The Evangelist mentions Tiberius Cæsar by name, and also the Governors of the Provinces, as well as many dates. From him we learn that the Mother had good reason to be in or near Bethlehem at that time, because there was a registration or census under Augustus which was fixed for the First of Tishri, when the Jewish civil year commenced. In the same month was the feast of Tabernacles, an additional reason for the journey. Bethlehem was their objective, “because they were of the house and lineage of David,” who was born at Bethlehem. Now the 1st Tishri would fall in that year on 19th September. At this time there would be “shepherds abiding in the fields by night,” that being the hot season. The 25th December is, of course, an impossible date. I now take my cue from the Apocalypse: “A woman clothed with the Sun and the Moon under her feet. And she brought forth the Man-child who should rule the nations with a rod of iron.” The Sun in the middle of the sign Virgo is the woman clothed with the Sun. To be “clothed” with the solar rays the luminary must be in the middle of the sign and neither just entering it nor just leaving it. The “Moon under its feet” signifies a full Moon, when the lunar orb was in the opposite point of the zodiac, namely, the middle of Pisces. “A rod of iron” indicates that the Man-child was born under the planet Mars, _i. e._ under the rising of the sign ascribed to the government of that planet. We have to construct a horoscope which, while in actual accord with astronomical facts, exhibits these features. We have already seen that the full Moon of March fell on the 13th, and if to this we add the values for six lunations, we shall have the full Moon of September in the year 4 B.C., thus—